Month: January 2020

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Myanmar’s government must protect the Rohingya Muslim minority from acts of genocide. That was despite a robust defence from de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Once a human rights champion, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has seen her international reputation crumble, after she defended the very military that had locked her away for 15 years. Suu Kyi and her government reject the ruling, and condemn human rights groups for painting a distorted picture. Guests: Maung ZarniCo-ordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition Nyo Ohn MyintFormer Member of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy Michael

By Maung Zarni | Anadolu Agency | January 24, 2020 Historic decision of World Court makes voice of Rohingya Muslims eventually heard after years-long persecution LONDON — Rohingya around the world on Thursday shared a pervasive sense of vindication after four-decades of policy-inflicted sufferings at the hands of Myanmar state which has systematically sought to destroy their identity and physical existence in the country.  The historic interim decision on Myanmar genocide by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), tasked principally to adjudicate legal disputes among UN member states, has made several millions Rohingya — in the camps in Bangladesh, in the diaspora and inside

By Maung Zarni | Published by The Washington Post | January 15, 2020 Maung Zarni is the co-founder of FORSEA, a grass-roots organization of Southeast Asian human rights defenders, and the co-author of “Essays on Myanmar’s Genocide of Rohingyas.” Last month, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague to rebut allegations that her country’s systematic persecution of its Rohingya population amounts to genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi, once lionized for her stand against an oppressive military dictatorship, strenuously denied the charges — despite reams of evidence and the presence of nearly

Rights group denounces Japan envoy for ‘disturbing’ comments on Myanmar Rohingya By Reuters | January 15, 2020 TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo-based human rights activists on Wednesday decried recent remarks by Japan’s ambassador to Yangon, who told local media he did not think the Myanmar military committed genocide on the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country.  More than 730,000 Rohingya fled the Southeast Asian nation to Bangladesh in 2017 after a military-led crackdown. The United Nations has said the campaign was executed with “genocidal intent” and included mass killings and rape.  The military offensive has sparked a series of ongoing legal

By Maung Zarni | Asia Times | January 14, 2020 January 4 marked the 72nd anniversary of Myanmar’s independence from Britain. The civil war in which the country – a patchwork of diverse ethnic regions, with mutually incomprehensible languages, unerasable regional identities and distinct political histories – was born has come a full circle. It is noteworthy that modern Myanmar was not the creation of nationalists. It was born out of the external shock of the Second World War and the dissolution of external colonial powers. Few Myanmar nationalist historians have acknowledged this historical fact, for it fundamentally and effectively undermines the nationalist